When given the opportunity to do some music reviews for Hard Rock Hideout, I jumped at the chance. This was my chance to expand my horizons and discover some new kick ass music. I’ve been really bad about listening to new stuff lately. I either listen to the same old stuff or go straight for the classic rock. I’ve been really out of the loop on new metal, and I’m a bit ashamed of myself for it. So I’m jumping in head first with Primal Fear’s 16.6 (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead).

I’ll let you all know up front that I’d never heard of this band and didn’t know one freaking thing about them, so I listened to the album with a completely open mind, no preconceived notions, ideas or thoughts. I did do a little research on the band (after listening to the album first) just to familiarize myself with them. The German metal band formed in 1997, has many albums and has had many line up changes over the years. Lead singer, Ralf Scheepers, was even considered for Rob Halford’s replacement in Judas Priest, which comes as no surprise.

The first thing to punch me in the face was Sheepers’ voice. It’s SO reminicsent of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford. I didn’t realize how much I missed that kind of singing until I listened to this album. It may be the most poignant part of the music for me. His voice is so strong and so solid. Not many people can sing this well, and although many try…most fall short. Sheepers’ is definitely powerful and a force to be reckoned with.

The other stand out point about this band is that it’s so guitar driven. There are furious, noodley guitar solos that grab you. That is definitely something that is missing from today’s rock that drives me insane. Very few people appreciate a good guitar solo and have almost let the art die off. Thank god metal keeps it alive!

High points for me include “Six Times Dead (16.6)” and “Killbound”. They’re both heavy and brutal.

There were only two negatives on this album. The first is “Soar”. The weird electronic intro and Marilyn Manson like sounds were odd and misplaced. And then there’s “Hands of Time”, which is a ballad. A ballad? I don’t get that at all. I suppose “every bad boy still has his soft side,” but this song totally threw me off and confused me. It just doesn’t fit at all.

If you like classic, straight forward metal, then you’re going to like this album. I have no idea if this is what’s normally expected of this band, but I kind of have a feeling that it is. There’s no denying the Iron Maiden and Judas Priest influence throughout with a little Pantera thrown in for good measure. I’m not saying that in a bad way but in an appreciative way because it’s really been so long since I’ve heard anything like this. It was really refreshing.

You can buy 16.6 (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead) on June 9th on Amazon and be sure to check out their website for tour info and updates.

“I’ll let you all know up front that I’d never heard of this band and didn’t know one freaking thing about them, so I listened to the album with a completely open mind, no preconceived notions, ideas or thoughts.”

And that is exactly the problem. Previous 6 albums of this band were amazing. And yet the last album had more hard rock basis than previous releases, and it was also slower. Usually, for the bands like Primal Fear it is a sign of a downfall. From fast, powerful, thrilling power metal they roll down to hard more and more. This has happened with HammerFall. Now it happens with Primal Fear. This is band’s crisis. Now, I don’t mind overall album slowdown and more hard rockish sound, but if you slow down and roll back to hard rocking sound – make it good! Make many different arrangements, shifting music themes. And Primal Fear have failed to do that. If first two tracks are somewhat catchy still, everything following is hardly worth to remember – if possible to all.
Now Primal Fear starts to repeat themselves. This album is pretty much the same as what we have heard on the previous “New Religion”, but the performance, arrangements, original ideas – they all lack here.

Anyway, my point is that you really need to familiarize yourself with band’s previous works before reviewing new ones. This isn’t “open mind”, not at all. Considering something good because you haven’t heard better (from this band) is just plain wrong. If the band has delivered much better material before, then yes – this album is a failure.